Best First Board Games

By Cailin Nelson - Mar 15 2009

At two and a half, my daughter Ava has just enough preschool skills (letters, numbers, colors, etc) to start to enjoy board games. Thanks to Stepping Stones, she's patient enough to wait for her turn, but of course her attention span is far from infinite! Here are a couple of beginner board games that have held her interest long enough to get all the way through a game.

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1Cariboo by Cranium

I bought this one year's ago for a friend's child and as far as I'm concerned it's pure genius. Each turn involves a fun mechanical action (opening a door with a key) and looking for something fun inside (brightly colored bouncy balls). Open all the doors until you find all six balls, and presto a magic treasure chest will open. (Preload the treasure chest with a couple of jelly beans for extra fun.)

This game has two levels. The beginner level teaches colors, shapes, the letters A-B-C, and numbers 1-2-3. The advanced level expands on this repertoire.

Every 2-3 year old I've ever shown this game to has also spent a blissful half an hour playing with the doors, balls and keys all by themselves. Buy it on Amazon.

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2Duck-Duck-123 by Cranium

Definitely not as fun as Cariboo, but it does have it's virtues. This game is much simpler. Spin a dial and then move your mother duck the specified number of spaces forward. As you move around the board, collect your baby ducklings and put them on your back. The main virtues are that the game markers (the mommy ducks) are big and chunky, and so are the spaces that you're supposed to move forward on. Also, again, there is a satisfying physical action (collecting the baby ducks).

If your child happens to be duck obsessed (mine is) they may also spend many happy minutes in unstructured ducky play. Find it on the shelves in the toy aisle of Target.

Now - you tell me! Where do we go from here? Share your favorite beginner board games by leaving a comment below.

Favorite games

Comment by Pamela Herhold on Mar 18 2009.

Uno and Blokus are our favorites! Ella (almost 5 years old) and her mom and dad all enjoy playing these games. Uno is great for learning numbers and colors and it's very portable. Blokus is great for developing strategy. The neat thing is that we all can play our heart out and you never know who will win. And if you know Ella, it's important for her to learn winning isn't everything! Not a board game, but also enjoyed is Jenga. Baby brother Dashiell loves it when the blocks come tumbling down.